Creative minds from across the continent will come together to explore how we design to thrive.
In a historic first the V&A Waterfront will play host to Pan Afrikan Design Week from 21–24 October 2026, bringing together designers, educators, students, entrepreneurs, cultural practitioners and community builders from Afrikan and other countries. This year’s theme poses the urgent question: How do we design to thrive?
The driving force behind the event is the Pan Afrikan Design Institute (PADI), which launched the first Pan Afrikan Design Week conference in Johannesburg in 2020. The annual event has since travelled to Botswana, Kenya, Uganda and Ghana, drawing names like acclaimed TED speaker Saki Mafundikwa – who is also confirmed as a speaker for this year – along the way
“We are extremely proud to bring Pan Afrikan Design Week to the Mother City,” says Suné Stassen, CEO of Open Design Afrika and Programme Director of the event. “This gathering honours the resilience, ingenuity and creative intelligence of Afrika at a moment when the world faces unprecedented challenges, and when the continent has so much to offer in answering them.”
The main three-day conference runs from 21–23 October at Workshop17 at the V&A Waterfront’s Watershed, followed by a Friday evening networking event on 23 October and a curated community-based learning tour with Uthando South Africa on Saturday 24 October. The programme combines impactful keynotes, dialogues, afternoon workshop labs, networking and community-linked learning, with each day building on the last.
The first day sets the context: locating Afrika in relation to itself and the world. On Day two, delegates will explore how design and creative collaboration can create ripple effects across sectors and ecosystems. The third day pushes the envelope, asking what education needs to become in order to develop the next generation of confident future-builders.
“A central idea behind the event is that humanity is the chief designer of the human-made world,” says Stassen. “If today’s realities have been shaped over generations by human choices, systems and institutions, then logically they can be redesigned through better choices, deeper collaboration and more responsible action.”
Open Design Afrika serves as the coordinating partner for Pan Afrikan Design Week 2026. Uthando South Africa joins the wider programme as cultural and community partner, facilitating a community-based learning tour that meaningfully connects delegates with Cape Town’s social-impact landscape and lived realities.
Approximately 200 delegates are expected to attend in person each day, with selected livestream access available to registered online ticket-holders. PADI’s network – spanning members in more than 21 Afrikan countries and 57 tertiary art and design schools – is expected to extend the conversation beyond the venue.
“This is not a conventional design conference,” says Stassen. “It’s a Pan-Afrikan convening that positions design at the centre of social change. Design has always been more than aesthetics – it is a civic, cultural and economic force that can actively shape and strengthen the future of our communities. At its core is creative confidence: the ability to imagine alternatives and ask the necessary questions, together.”
Early-bird tickets are available on Quicket until the end of July for a limited time at R3,400. From August, tickets for the full three-day conference will be R3,800. A range of ticket options is also available, including student tickets, single-day passes and workshop and networking event passes. Find all the ticketing details here.